Project Management Institute Inc Risk Management

Need a Substantive 200-300 word reply to my Colleague’s Post below.When citing resources, don’t forget to use in-text citations and a reference citation at the end using proper APA style. Please consult Purdue’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) website or your APA guide to assist you. See: OWL APA Style Guide for assistance.

In the project environment any risk could be a potential project killer, that is why it is important for the project manager to identify risk early on. Risk management is essentially processes put in place to identify potential risk so that the project team can better handle them. The goals of implementing risk management in the project environment are to “increase the chances of positive events and to decrease the chance of negative events” (Project Management Institute Inc., 2013). According to Heldman, “risk management is one of the most often skipped areas in small to medium projects” (Heldman, 2005). It is important to spend time planning for risk that may or may not occur, even if it is a small project. This time and effort spent upfront will help the success of the project once you get started. Experiencing risk in a project does not mean that a project will fail, risk doesn’t have to be the enemy of the project. But what can cause failure is if you aren’t prepared for the risk. Think of it in terms of buying owning a home; that is great risk in my opinion. I am a home owner, and I don’t have some large contingency fund set aside for unknown risk that may occur like basement flooding or my ac unit going out in the middle of summer. I did plan for those potential risk when I purchased my home by purchasing a home warranty. I spend time on researching which company would offer me the coverage I needed at the price I could afford. This is one example of how planning for events that may or may not happen can be beneficial, because I had those two things occur since I’ve owned this home. It is the same as working on a project, you want to have processes in place in case of negative risk so that you can stay focused on the scope of the project, while effectively handling the risk.

Another goal of risk management is “identifying potential risk, analyzing those risk to determine which could be a negative or positive impact, and creating plans that help lessen or avoid risk while still being successful” (Heldman, 2005). There are many tools in the Project Management field that can help with this process. Some of those tools that we have covered include brainstorming, using diagrams, and the SWOT Analysis. The brainstorming technique involves the project team creating a list of possible risk in an open and judgement free meeting, a facilitator is needed. From that list, risks are categorized and evaluated. Diagrams include the Ishikawa diagram; this diagram helps to show the cause of a specific risk. And the SWOT technique helps to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of an identified risk. This technique also helps to show how certain parts of the analysis can affect another part; how weaknesses can be beneficial to opportunities.

Heldman, K. (2005). Risk Management (Project Manager’s Spotlight Series) . Wiley.

Project Management Institute Inc. (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge 5th Edition. Newtown Square, PA: PMI.

Bottom of Form